LONDINIUM: What is "tactical football" and why did I invent it?

Sorry it's been a while.  I'm writing Londinium when I have the opportunity and, unfortunately, I don't have the opportunity as much as I would like.

The World Cup is winding down so I thought I'd share a little something I made up for the book: tactical football.

You'll recall that the basis for the book is a present day police story set on a world where the Roman Empire didn't fall.  I imagine that our football (soccer) exists and is sometimes called "common football" or "community football," but a more militaristic version is the one that swept the world.  Created in the Army a few centuries ago by a fort's general who wanted to impart lessons of teamwork and strategic thinking on new recruits, it uses the circular arena floor of colosseums:

The active field measures 100 meters across, plus however much for out-of-bounds area, the benches, etc.

Labeled:

(Going forward, I'll be using "tactical football" terms for everything, but "our" terms will be in parentheses and italics.)

Oriented with the compass, there are four gates (goals) that all must be occupied at one time by one team in order to win a set.  At the end of three thirty-minute-periods of play, the winner is the team with the most completed sets.  The taking of an occupied or neutral gate awards a point, but these points do not count toward sets or decide victory.  If anything, points are indicators of how vigorous gameplay was.  Each gate is ten meters long and two meters high.  The approach (penalty box/area) is a twenty-meter arc centered on each gate.  The ball must pass through a gate in order for it to be claimed by an attacking team and it must not be touched by anyone's hands or arms while in play; defending shieldmen are the only exception.

The beginning of a game:

There are sixteen players on each team: twelve players and four shieldmen/shields (goalkeepers).  Above, the shields are the players ringed in white.  When not actively defending a gate, shields may play as regular players.

The game begins with two opposing gates occupied.  A skirmish occurs at centerfield: the ball is placed on the spot and all players stand outside the center ring.  The official whistles and players rush to take possession.  The shields and supporting players may instead head toward other gates in order to hopefully claim those if the ball enters that quarter.

A look at active gameplay:

The quarter in which the ball is present is called the active quarter (highlighted yellow above).  Before we get to the siege of the east gate, let us note the west gate.  The defending shield is allowed within the approach.  The attacking shield is not because the ball is not within the quarter.  As both the north and south quarters are as-yet-unclaimed and the ball is not within the quarter, neither team's shields are allowed within the approach.

When the ball entered the eastern quarter, the attacking shield was allowed to enter the approach.  While in active play, the attacking shields are allowed to grapple with the defending shields in order to prevent defense of the gate.  The number of attacking players within the approach, however, may not be more than the number of attackers outside the approach and within the quarter (this was my attempt to create an arcane "offsides" rule).   Above, you will note that there are four red players within the approach and five outside, thus this siege is within the rules.  Note: shields do not count toward these siege rules.

As originally conceived, such siege rules were not part of the game as played at Army forts, nor were penalties for assaults committed during play.  Needless to say, it was a far more rough sport.

If the ball goes out at the touch of an attacker (between the flags of the occupied quarter), the defending shield takes possession and kicks it where they please (goal kick).  If the ball goes out at the touch of a defender, an attacker takes possession at the nearest flag for a flanking kick (corner kick).  From there, the attacker may either kick it toward the same approach that was previously active, or they may kick it toward a different quarter altogether.  If a ball goes out between the flags of a neutral quarter, the team that didn't send it out may put into play by throw from the nearest flag.

If the attackers claim the gate, all previously defending players, including the shield, must abandon the approach as the new defending shield will kick or throw the ball to a different area of the field.  Once all four gates are claimed and defended by a single team, a set is completed and the game will continue with a skirmish at the centerfield and the two original gates being the only ones occupied by either team.  Example: let us say that red wins the siege depicted above.  The ball is kicked toward the north gate and red claims it.  Now red controls three of the four gates.  If they push toward south gate and claim it, they have won the set.  In order to deny them the set, blue must claim south gate or reclaim one of the other three.

Three thirty-minute periods are played, separated by twenty minute intervals for rest.  Reinforcements (substitutions) are allowed only during the first two periods: each team gets five per game and the player being removed from the field has one minute from the time the reinforcement enters the game.  This means a team may briefly have seventeen players on the field.  Each team may only place one reinforcement at a time.  Shields may be reinforced but the departing shield must leave the gate immediately.  (Note: a shield that defends a gate is not allowed to depart that gate until after it has been claimed by another team or until a set has been completed.)

In the third period, because reinforcements are not allowed, if players are injured, then that team must play without their full complement.  If a defending shield is injured, a non-shield player may take their position.

If both teams are tied at the end of the ninety minutes, a second ball is added to the field and play will continue until another set is completed, however long is necessary. 

Well.  Now that that's clear, let's see how I used it in the story:

Mm.  Maybe I overthink things a bit.

Thanks for reading. 

 

 

 

Writing LONDINIUM, Part I: Maps and the first chapter!

 Finding time to write has been the difficult part of getting going for this book thus far.  And when I have a bit of time, I can sit and stare at the screen.  Sometimes I'm just not "feeling it" for whatever reason.  That sucks and there's little to be done for it.

Another obstacle?  What to listen to as I write.  Readers know I listed to the thirteen-plus hours of the Galactica/Caprica soundtracks over and over, totaling thousands of hours, but what to listen to as I write a story set in a modern Roman Empire?  Well, I started by listening to Roman and Greek music (or at least recreations thereof).  Eh.  Then I moved on to movie soundtracks, but those weren't terribly inspiring and I often got distracted thinking about the movies and scenes I was listening to.  I ended up back in the Galactica-verse.  Yeah, I'm listening to Bear McCreary's great music, over and over again, again, as I write.

Longtime readers know I love to map things.  It helps me immerse myself in the worlds I'm building and maybe it helps readers, too.  If nothing else, it shows the readers that I actually put some thought into the bullshit I write.  This time, since I am writing about our world in a different dimension, mapping our world with Roman lines and names on everything would be helpful.  So here you go:

 

Click to embiggen

 

I had to do a lot of reading on Roman history and indigenous languages to understand how the world might look.  Europe was called "Europe," the Atlantic "the Atlantic," and "Africa" to the Romans is what we would call "north Africa."  "Oriens" is Latin for "east" and I chose that for Asia's name; thus also the "Eastern Ocean" aka "Oriental Ocean" ("Oriental" not having been used as a slur in that universe).  Some of the other continent names come from an ancient map of the world by Crates of Mallus.  He called the land south of north Africa "Antoeca" while he also hypothesized a pair of continents on the other side of the world, Perioeca and Antipoda.  Thus, when my Romans went exploring, that's what they called these lands in the "New World."  Australia gets the name "Marege" from the Makassar people of Indonesia, who, centuries ago, spoke of the land to their south as "Marege," the "wild country."  

I had to map Londin a bit, too, so I started with the various police districts and I imagined greater Londin as a bit bigger than the London of our universe:

"Southwark" is a name used in London today, but it's a quite ancient name, so I kept it for the book.  Newfield and Broadhand are based on ancient Roman settlements in those areas and I just translated their Latin names into English.  If you Google "Londinium," you'll likely see a polygon settlement on the north side of the Thames; that's the "Old City" in the above map.  The "New City" is the provincial and city buildings (the governor's palace, the Senate house, magistracy, etc.) that function today on the south side of the River Tames (no "h" in that universe, and it rhymes with "aims").  "LIC" is the "Londin Intercontinental Skyport"; "The Star" is the massive railway and subway (called "underway") complex that got its name because the converging rail lines looked like a star.  "Portaper" is a neighboring city that handles a lot of cargo because it straddles the Tames; name derives from Latin for "port" and "opening."

The story of Londinium is set today, but in a world where the Roman Empire didn't go away.  (I wrote out a very detailed history of the world that I'll probably include in the book as an index.  I did it mostly to keep things straight in my head as ideas came to me and to provide backstory to the various cultures.)  The world is governed from Roma and all people born on Earth are citizens of the Roman Republic.  Londin has been associated with Roma for almost two thousand years.  The Normans never invaded, England never had its own kings or queens, English isn't spoken there ... neither is Italian, for that matter.  The language of the Republic is called "Roma," and it's probably some flavor of Italian, but not exactly.  (This is why some cities may sound Italian to our ears, like "Bonaventura.")  I'm writing in English because that's what I know ... I'm not JRR Tolkien over here inventing a whole new language.  Well, at least not this time.  The people of Brittan are not reserved ... they are wholly different than the people of Great Britain.  That's something I wanted to communicate in this first chapter.  These aren't Brits, so don't imagine them speaking with a Cockney accent or something.  Slang "yes" and "no" comes from corrupted Germanic, "ya," "na."  There's no "OK"; these people are more apt to say "Aye" in its place.  The Republic has existed in one form or another for almost three millennia.  It is ever-present in the people's lives and no one questions it.  It's a different world.  I'm curious if all of this is conveyed.

Read the chapter after the JUMP: